Local

Georgia Tech's president angered by ethics scandal involving top leaders

ATLANTA — Georgia Tech's president, Bud Peterson, said he is disappointed and angered by an ethics scandal involving several top leaders. He wants whistleblowers to know their complaints will not be ignored.

Channel 2 Action News uncovered $1 million worth of spending on employee entertainment, which cost the director of the Georgia Tech research institute his job in June.

A series of four other high-level firings or resignations followed in July, attracting the attention of the president's boss.

"He's taking it very personally. It's not just a mandate to the campus. It's a mandate to him as a leader," Tech spokesman Lance Wallace said of Peterson, who is facing his most embarrassing chapter since coming to the university 10 years ago.

TRENDING STORIES:

Peterson clearly prefers to be known for heading a top flight research institution.

Instead, recent weeks have been dominated by Channel 2 Action News and our investigative partners at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporting about four senior executives who were either fired or resigned for offenses ranging from conflict of interest to golfing on university time.

"It saddens him that we've had to deal with these so strongly, and he's determined to not ever let this happen again once we've moved through this period," Wallace said.

The president wrote to the head of the university system expressing disappointment, anger and embarrassment over the ethical lapses that have plagued Georgia Tech.

System Chancellor Steve Wrigley responded bluntly, "Lax management and unethical behavior at Georgia Tech have resulted in misuse of resources and a failure to hold staff accountable, and, as president, you are ultimately responsible."

"We recognize that this is a mandate to change," Wallace said.

A common complaint among Georgia Tech employees is that mid-level and even senior administrators ignored whistleblowers' complaints, sometimes for months.

"The main message the president wants to go to the campus is that if you have a complaint, if you see something and you report it, it will be dealt with," Wallace said. "It's not going into a dead end or into a trash basket. It is going to be dealt with, and there's going to be consequences."

Other changes at Tech include the internal auditor now reporting directly to Peterson and the university beginning its search for a campus-wide ethics officer.

Wrigley wants an update from Peterson in mid-November.